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I publish my last Diary as it was written, or as I was inspired or configured - without any divisions or divisions. This is the last, heartfelt voice of my soul to my beloved and loving Creator and Provider and to good Christians. Kronstadt Archpriest John Sergiev Lord! You see the cunning of the enemies of the Orthodox faith and Your Church and their zeal to overcome it. Put an end to them: let all their evil work die with these people. People are in turmoil, the elements are in turmoil: air, water, earth, fire are in turmoil - due to the sins of people, soon the elements that are being burned will flare up, the earth and everything on them will burn. Sins have multiplied to the brim. There is no longer an opportunity to live in peace. Church of God! Bride of Christ, adorn yourself so that you may appear brightly to your beautiful, incorruptible, eternal Bridegroom. Lord, how immeasurably You have magnified the human race through Your incarnation and Your God-manhood and the Ever-Virgin Mother of God who incarnated You and Your chosen humanity in the person of countless saints. And how - oh, horror! - the Tolstoyans and all the intoxicated so-called intelligentsia swear at You and Your Church, at Your teaching, at Your sacraments and divine services. Lord, how long will this reproach be? How long has this been madness? Lord, come down to crush this mountain of wickedness. Wake up! God! I am amazed at the greatness of Your deeds in the kingdom of grace and in the kingdom of nature created by You; I am amazed at Your immeasurable truth and wisdom, that You, having allowed Your verbal beloved creation (man) to fall deeply and be stolen and deceived and ridiculed by the murderous serpent, deigned to redeem and restore him in a supernatural way, Having Himself incarnated and becoming human and choosing as the instrument of incarnation the good, Most Pure Virgin, whom He showed as the Intercessor and Intercessor of all Orthodox Christians. The angels marvel at Your condescension, Your goodness and wisdom. When we serve in the Church, then we serve reverently; when we serve in simple houses and among ordinary people, we serve carelessly, hastily and heartlessly, as if we were not the same God, the Knower of the Heart, great and terrible both in the Church and in every place. Let us correct ourselves and be sincere and reverent everywhere. Everything organic and animal in the world lives a unique life, to the glory of God, to the proclamation of His wisdom, goodness, His beauty, the first and beginningless life. A special, rational, personal, eternal, blissful life is given to live only by angels and the human race, meaningful, chosen, obedient to the commands of the Creator. We must achieve this life according to the instructions and commandments of the Creator and with His omnipotent assistance every day and hour, and we are commanded to constantly watch, for “our adversary the devil, like a lion, walks roaring, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). “Judge not, lest ye be judged. By whom you judge, you will be judged” (Matthew 7:1). Lord, grant us not to judge the living, much less the dead. You are the one righteous Judge, as the Creator and Lawgiver, of the living and the dead. And grant us to strictly condemn ourselves and ask the deceased for forgiveness and forgiveness of sins, voluntary and involuntary. Human nature is terribly, unimaginably corrupted - by all sorts of sins - such that it is shameful and painful and scary to talk about. We, priests, confessors, know this more than anyone else, especially those of us who, through our closeness and spiritual affection and sympathy, through our ardent faith and sincerity in our relationship to the spiritual ailments of our spiritual children, have earned their trust. Oh, how these simple, sincere souls of sinners and sinners suffer from sins and how they need our sympathy, advice, healing and God’s mercy! There is no such sinful absurdity and abomination of sin, no matter what a person has fallen into. One or another sinner mixed with all sorts of neighbors, the most related people, with all kinds of livestock and animals: with cats, dogs, pigs... My God! What is this? How far has man fallen! These are ordinary people. And the learned and educated, the rich, the well-born - they fall even worse with their education: “men do justice to men” (Rom. 1:27). And other ancient pagan emperors had a passion for beautiful boys and satisfied their carnal passion with them. Other high-ranking officials did the same... “Deliver me from the devil’s haste” (morning prayer). The devil is in a hurry, he is in an incredible hurry and constantly catches a person in order to destroy him forever, and people doze, are inactive and sleep in their everyday vanity, in their passions of selfish, gluttonous, prodigal, gambling (theater and cards), fashion, writing, sleepy and all sorts - they die in the thousands, like flies from fly agaric mushrooms. Hurry and hurry, Christians, to save your souls while there is time, while the Lord waits and is patient, until the doors of the kingdom are closed. The holy fools came, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us. “When he answered, he said to them: Amen, I say to you, I do not know you” (Matthew 25:11-12). And how the Lord hurries to save the faithful, attentive and ready; He hurries at every hour, every minute and sends every aid. The Lord shepherds me and will deprive me of nothing. In a green place, there they settled me, on the water they raised me calmly. Convert my mind, “guide me in the paths of righteousness for Your Name’s sake” (Ps. 23:1-3). Oh, hurry, sinners, to salvation! If a king or any authority in general - secular or spiritual - is mistaken in many ways and acts illegally due to a weak conscience or lack of character, do not despise, do not scold, but pray to the Lord for them, “may He heal the weak and fill what is missing” (from the prayer at consecration) - for without God we cannot do anything truly good and useful. The enemy does not sleep - day and night, in sleep and in reality, he draws us to sin and feeds in our soul all sorts of soul-killing passions. Stay awake, man, crucify the passions, especially gluttony and all carnal sins... Christians, especially Orthodox Christians, who keep and observe in purity the dogmas of their faith, have been given so many blessings and strengths for salvation from God, so many secrets of God have been revealed, that for those who believe, are attentive, and strive in their faith, it is easy to be saved and become heirs of the kingdom of heaven, the eternal, “for the yoke of the Lord is easy and His burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). The angels marvel with trepidation at the mercy of God towards us, manifested in the incarnation of God for our sake, His cohabitation with people on earth, personal teaching, countless miracles performed in assurance of His Divinity and Divine Embassy, in suffering for us, death, burial and resurrection from the dead, and ascension into heaven, with the promise of His second terrible coming to judge the living and dead. But the majority of people remain either unbelievers or doubters, insensitive, deaf to the word of the Gospel, partial to the vain and false word of man, to hypocrisy and hypocrisy, to everything mirage, ephemeral, to that which is for one day. But they forget about the eternal, about what is only needed. “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 20:16). Remember the great supper and the endless good things prepared by the Lord of the House, and those called to it by His mercy; everyone refused because of worldly addictions; and therefore not one of those invited tasted His supper. It's horrible! What kind of disbelief, disrespect for the Lord! What laziness, what absurd addictions! And yet this is how it was and will be. Everyone follows the broad path of easy sin, everyone avoids the narrow and regrettable, purifying, testing, preparatory path! Man is terribly fickle and changeable as a result of the initial damage in paradise: from the heights of heavenly contemplation and Divine thoughts, he can instantly fall into the abomination of nasty, evil, prodigal and blasphemous, evil and envious thoughts and feelings, so that after high spiritual joy he has to secretly cry about his damnation. Blessed is he who, by the grace of God, is firmly established in God and escapes the wiles of Belial the blasphemer. My God! How the enemy has dishonored the creature that You created in Your image. And to this day he dishonors us all day and night with countless sins and passions, absurd, unclean, blasphemous, harmful thoughts that confuse our souls! What attention, what prayer, what abstinence, what struggle we must have with our mental enemies! God, help us all, especially those who are faithful and attentive to You! The present visible world is one shadow of the future spiritual, immortal age, the future land of the living. Is it reasonable to become attached to the shadow, and not to the Truth Itself, not to the future, truly real age, and the eternal day? “For the image of this world is passing away” (1 Cor. 7:31); the seasons change, the atmosphere constantly changes; a generation passes away and another generation comes; temporary kings are replaced by one another; great and mediocre people and all their talents are transitory; human beauty is transitory and turns into pus; transitory images of day and night; infinitely diverse forms of cereals and all kinds of plants - everything passes away and turns into decay. One God never changes and remains eternally the same, all-good, all-holy, all-wise, beautiful, all-blessed, eternal, all-powerful. And the human soul, created in His image, if it has achieved holiness. A person is so deeply damaged, corrupted and defiled by sin, infinitely manifold, that even after struggling for a long time in contemplation and the thought of God, if for a moment he lets go of the spiritual reins of the mind and heart, he can now descend to base, carnal, and nasty thoughts and feelings, for the roots of sins penetrate deeply and in all directions into the human heart and it often happens that until a person’s death they remain in it and paralyze his soul. Only through patience, abstinence, unceasing prayer, illness and suffering are eradicated. “I grind with the teeth of animals,” said St. Ignatius the God-Bearer, “to become the pure bread of God.” How many different passions, coldness and carelessness about the soul and its eternal fate beyond the grave, despondency, grumbling, disobedience, waywardness nest in the depths of our hearts, and how unclean we are before God, almost every minute we are unworthy of Him, and we are worthy of Him only when we recognize our sins and sincerely cry about them, asking for forgiveness and expressing a firm desire not to repeat sins in the future, not to be defiled by them, not to be servile to them, but to firmly preserve and fulfill the holy, righteous and wise will of God. Always walk before God, as before the face of an all-good, all-powerful, quick-to-obey Father, always ready to fulfill the righteous desires and requests of our hearts. Our life on earth: sleep, dreams and constant and gradual dying is not life. I want a true, real, Divine life, characteristic of a being created in the image and likeness of God, my God. And what kind of dreams are we having when we sleep at night, in the morning or in the evening! These are dreams, dreams, and often sinful ones at that! This is a loss of time for God, for truth, for eternity. I want life, life in God and with God, in the love of God, in incorruption, in the light of the Divine - in peace, in the space of the heart! What is the power of crime, the greatest madness of free and ingratitude, and the misfortune of the first people? The fact is that they exchanged God for creation; love for the Creator - to devotion to the evil creature; the most holy, imperishable union with the Creator, - to the unclean, evil, evil and corruptible union with creatures. “He who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37). What can we say about the sinful connections and addictions of fornicators and harlots; about malicious alliances, what are the current revolutionary alliances? About unions of sectarian schismatics, heretics, about unions of robbers, thieves, anti-state? Friendship with our flesh and the charm of carnal pleasures are the cause of our sins, the cause of coldness towards God, addiction to the world and its imaginary transitory, disappearing benefits, the cause of our mental laziness and negligence. “I woke up all and slept” (Matthew 25:5). Loyalty and devotion to the Lord is required for every rational creature, and in order to be faithful and devoted to the Lord, you need to give up addiction to your passionate flesh and to the adulterous and sinful world, which seduces us with momentary pleasures. You need to stop being a slave to the womb, the theater, cards, the circus, a slave to various revelries, tobacco potions, a slave to silver and gold and intricate fashions. Here you are, a fan of the theater, will you be justified in the judgment of God in your addiction to it? No: because because of him you forgot God, the church of God, the word of God, prayer, the high purpose of your soul, created in the image of God, you forgot about eternal life and preparation for it, about almsgiving, virginity and chastity, abstinence. And you, covetous and covetous, will you appear right before God when He judges you according to your deeds? No: your gold, your covetousness, your stinginess and greed will crush you; You will be a stranger to God’s mercy, just as you have not had mercy on your neighbor. You will be thrown into the fire of Gehenna, and you will be denied even a drop of water to cool and quench the flames of hell. And you, fornicator, will you receive pardon at the trial if you do not repent and give up your adultery, do not pay for it, do not make amends for it with alms and abstinence? Thus, all those attached, addicted to the shadow of this world, its deceptive sweets, will not receive mercy unless they repent. Oh, how many who sinned and repented were pardoned! How many former fornicators, murderers, greedy people and repentants in paradise have entered paradise and are enjoying bliss! How great is God’s love for mankind! How great is the redemptive power of the Cross, the blood of the Lamb of God Jesus Christ, shed for the world! How will the unbelievers, the proud, the bitter, the rebellious, the despairing, be justified? God's mercy was ready for them if they would humbly turn to God, Who does not want anyone to perish, but “wants all men to be saved” (1 Tim. 1:4). Lord, forgive us, the priests, who quickly lay the resolving hand (due to lack of time) on the repentant. Don't judge us for this and for many other things. I solemnly pronounce a curse on that first apostate from God, from His eternal truth, the order of peace and bliss, who was the first to allow sin and all its abominations to be born in God’s pure creation - who fell from the heights of greatness and implanted sin, by the permission of the all-wise Creator, so that His goodness and long-suffering would be more manifested into infinity, and the exploits and valor of those devoted to God would shine forth, so that there is a place for the extreme all-redemptive condescension of our Lord Jesus Christ on earth, and the final victory of good over evil; I curse that wicked, ungrateful womb in which the stupid, daring dream and pride first arose - to equal God and declare war on Him, His eternal truth, holiness, wisdom, infinite beauty and invincible power. Let us all think about our deplorable, terrible fall and the need for rebellion and correction. Many are not aware of this fall and therefore do not consider the uprising proper and necessary - and become ossified in countless passions and bad habits. Lord, open our mental eyes! Since sin in all its forms penetrated deeply into the entire being of man - soul and body - and dissolved and mixed with it, the Lord, the all-wise Creator and Physician, was pleased to heal humanity: like with like. The Doctor Himself mixed with the person being treated and gave him to eat His most pure Body and His most pure Blood and mixed with him His Divinity and humanity. In what a high environment is a Christian placed, to what highest holy society is he assigned as a Christian and a member of the Church! “You are not strangers and strangers, but you are companions with the saints and close to God” (Eph. 2:19-20). Remember this, Christian, and live worthy of the calling, in all virtue. Do you not prefer creation to the Creator and do you not love creation more than the Creator? It is necessary that every person come to true reason and learn to sincerely honor and love the eternal, personal, loving Creator and for the sake of His love to despise earthly, partial love. If the goodness of God had left me, then I would have remained an old man, full of sins that began in my youth and continue in part to this day, and I would be all darkness and darkness, uncleanness and stench. Now the goodness of God continually cleanses, sanctifies, enlightens, renews, fragrances and beautifies me. Glory to the Lord for this. During fasting, especially for a priest, one must abandon the indulgences that irritate the flesh and not please it, but grieve it: sleep not long, teach the people the word of God, unfeigned, fruitful repentance, awaken hatred of all sin; explain how it is disgusting to God, how it (sin), contrary to nature, has become akin to it and acts in it powerfully, insatiably and disastrously. There is a beginningless, infinite, personal, wise, all-good and all-righteous Being, whose name is He (being), from whom all being is and who cannot not exist. The creatures created by Him are countless, endlessly varied, beautiful, beneficial, vital, all bearing the stamp of reason, wisdom, and indescribable beauty. From them one can recognize the Artist who conceived and created them; His vitality, goodness, wisdom, beauty, eternity of being, faithfulness to all His words spoken in revelation to us, His rational creatures. We thank Him, our Creator and Creator, Redeemer and Savior, who gave us a revelation of Himself in His word, spoken by the prophets and apostles, and various vows that He will fulfill all in due time, for example, the vow of the resurrection from the dead and the future blessed life with beatitudes so excellent that the human eye cannot see them, and the ear cannot hear them, and the human heart cannot see them. sigh, as God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). Glory and thanksgiving to You for this, our Creator and Savior! My God! What a spectacle, what heavenly consolation to St. Sergius and Seraphim. The Lord Himself clearly and solemnly appears to the gaze of St. Seraphim with the Heavenly Powers at the small entrance of the liturgy, and repeatedly the Most Holy Lady Theotokos! And St. Sergius - the Mother of God herself and the saints granted him to his cell. Oh, consolation! Oh, the dignity of a Christian and ascetic man! Glory to God who has been so kind. An Orthodox Christian turns his face to the holy icons: the Savior, the Mother of God, angels and saints of God - in order to clearly show his faith in their presence, in their closeness to himself; Holy icons realize and fulfill our Orthodox faith, but without holy icons we seem to hang in the air, not knowing to whom we pray. Lord, do not let me dream of myself as being better than anyone else, but let me think of myself as the worst of all and not condemn anyone, but judge myself strictly. Do you all know, who should know, that our entire current revolution is, first of all, a consequence of apostasy from faith, from our God-loving, holy, vital Orthodoxy, which has within itself all the necessary power to order everything - both our internal and external world, and politics, and all family, civil and economic life. “Take, eat... Drink everything from it...” (Matthew 26, 26, 27). Does everyone eat and drink the Flesh and Blood of the Lord according to His commandment? Here, in the Orthodox world, in other places in the church, even if you roll a ball, there are no communicants; in universities there are no communicants, not to mention other Christian denominations... But what is going on here!.. Everyone praises their faith as right, but it is not the one who praises himself who is right, but the one whom God praises; and God Himself glorifies our faith incessantly in His saints. Go to the relics of the saints and see whose faith is right. In what other faith does God perform such miracles as in the Orthodox faith? In what other faith are people rewarded with incorruptibility and the fragrance of bodies after death?.. How did people deal with the most incarnate Goodness and Heavenly Truth, with the Lord Jesus Christ? They tempted Him in every possible way, dissembled before Him, envied Him, looked for Him in order to catch Him in a word and bring Him to the Roman court, and finally, after all sorts of mockery and torment, they killed Him on the cross. What did people do with the true faith that Christ brought from heaven, with all His divine teaching, with the sacraments established by God? They distorted them beyond recognition, some rejected them, and in the place of His teaching they put their own inventions, like the scribes and Pharisees, and in our days - Leo Tolstoy. One Creator knows all the dignity of the human soul, which He created in His image and likeness, and He alone can appreciate all its boundless love and devotion to Him, the Lord God. Blessed is the Christian man who understands this and cleaves with all his heart to God, His Creator and Redeemer, and endures all temptations in love and devotion to Him, like Job of the Old Testament, like the apostles, hierarchs, martyrs and all the saints who pleased God and were awarded heavenly citizenship for their fidelity and devotion. What is the dignity of man and the human soul when the Lord honors him with the communion of His Most Pure Body and Blood and makes him His church, the church of the Holy Trinity? Think about this, mortal people, and learn from the immortality given to us by the Conqueror of death: “Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood will have eternal life” (John 6:54). “Fill those who hunger with good things” (Luke 1:53). The deeper the repentance, humility, consciousness and feeling of one’s sins, the more abundantly the grace of petition is given, the more blessings are poured into a person’s soul from the all-generous Master. Manasseh was the most lawless of the kings, but then he showed great and deep repentance and was granted great forgiveness and mercy from the Lord. Consider the repentant prayer of Manasseh, the king of the Jews, how he humbled himself and repented of it; How he magnified the mercy and long-suffering of God! His prayer is an example of repentance. Because of the transitory, material, do not neglect the eternal, spiritual, and do not lose love and peace with your neighbors because of material expenses, losses and deprivations. Hold on to the peace of love. Have peace and holiness with everyone, “whose will see the Lord except no one” (Heb. 12:14). We need an urgent, continuous struggle with all the passions that live and are rooted in us. Tell me, what passion did you overcome and kill? Aren't they all still alive in you and don't they hurt you and confuse you? Rise up and overcome all passions, these mental Amaliki living in you and getting along with you. “What kind of agreement does Christ have with Belial? or I will return some part with the infidel” (2 Cor. 6:15). Face to face, mouth to mouth - we, Orthodox Christians, talk with the Lord, the Mother of God, the holy angels and all the saints. This is what it means, according to Orthodox Christian custom, to pray reverently before holy icons in spirit and in truth. This is why we supply them in churches and houses of worship (chapels), and in our homes. We believe in the closeness of the Lord and His saints to us and that we are one spiritual body with them, one Church, just as there is one Head of them and our Lord Jesus Christ. With such faith in our holy icons and in the Church, will you, iconoclast-heretics, throw stones of slanderous condemnation at them? We are right, and you are wrong and false. You, man, every day, hour, minute, the Lord, the Creator of creation, pleases you in every possible way: the sun shines on you, caresses you, and the quiet light of the clear month, and life-giving and pleasantly refreshing air, and fire, and water for all your needs, and grains, and trees, and root crops, and fruits lying on the ground, and in what countless variety of different pleasant tastes, and the flesh of all kinds of animals and all kinds of fish and birds; and how many fabrics and fabrics the Lord has given you to cover and clothe your flesh or to adorn you; how many metals - and precious stones - for decoration of yours and the holy churches! So God pleases everyone, to your well-being and pleasure. Are you not obligated to please Him for your own good - to live according to your conscience and the Law of God, His commandments and covenants, according to His Gospel, according to the instructions of your spiritual mother - the Church of God? “Leave foolishness and live” (Proverbs 9:6)... “But even though I counted gain, I counted it against Christ as loss” (Phil. 3:8). O high Christian heavenly philosophy of the heavenly Paul! Everything earthly: human beauty, perishable wealth, the sweetness of food and drink, the beauty of clothing, gold and silver - all earthly delights that seduce the eye and feelings, count them as rubbish in order to gain Christ: for it is impossible to have Christ in the heart if the heart is occupied with an addiction to earthly things. This is heavenly philosophy! Imitate. In order to heal and atone for the passionate nailing of man to the ground, the God-man deigned to be nailed to the cross... By Your cross, O Savior, save and have mercy on us. Thoughts, reason and feel in such a way that all your thoughts, feelings and dispositions of your soul are known in heaven: when you sit, lie, walk, work, pray, eat, read, talk - everything, absolutely everything is known, and therefore live carefully, think and feel sensibly, live according to your conscience and according to the commandments of the Savior and God, treat people sincerely, simply, unkindly, kindly, purely and holy, pray to God and the saints fervently, reverently. Lent or Lent has ended. The holiday of Christ's resurrection of the righteous Lazarus from the dead has arrived, as a sign of the resurrection of Christ and the future general resurrection. And so in the future resurrection for all, a new life will begin, eternal for the righteous and repentant, and for unbelievers and unrepentant sinners - eternal torment... “I can’t dig, I’m ashamed to ask” (Luke 16:3). This is the trouble and important loss: you are ashamed to ask, but you have to ask. “Ask, and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7); after all, you are “unhappy, and pitiful, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Apoc. 3:17). I can’t dig, but I need to dig, I would dig in the depths of my soul and dig up a real treasure - an immortal soul buried by passions, that soul that was created in the image and likeness of God and which is completely suppressed by worldly lusts and pleasures. “If you don’t give it back to someone else, who will give it to you?” (Luke 16:12). Someone else's property is earthly wealth, earthly positions, earthly body, health - which we did not know how and did not want to use according to God's instructions, as transitory and temporary. Our true wealth is our soul, rich in the image and likeness of God, rational free will, immortality, the ability to love God and neighbor, repent, pray, thank and glorify God. This is our estate! The holy saints were faithful to God both in other people's property, squandering it on the poor, and in their own: they used their souls appropriately, cleansed it with prayers and tears of repentance, the labors of fasting and vigil, and martyrdom for Christ. So, let us be faithful to God both in what is foreign and in our own... All unbelieving and unrepentant sinners face eternal punishment, eternal torment, prepared for “the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41) and rightly so: because they did evil and fulfilled his evil and destructive will. Each of us experiences the punishment of sin: confusion, sorrow and distress. “Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28) The Lady received all the fullness of grace from the Lord, as the Mother according to humanity of the all-perfect Creator, all the fullness of truth, holiness, goodness, mercy and compassion for sinful and distressed humanity, the fullness of power and strength, bliss, eternal glory and superiority over all heavenly forces. She received all ten talents of grace, and because of the incomprehensible abundance of grace, she can and does abundantly exude to all who come to Her with faith, all grace-filled help in troubles, sorrows, illnesses and in every sad state. Come to Her with undoubted faith and hope! Thank the Lord that He made you a member of His Church, this Divine society of saints, of which the Mother of God is the Head and first member. She treats all the faithful and sincere children of the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ in a motherly, benevolent, caring and sympathetic manner. The holy apostles and the entire innumerable council of the righteous and all the saints are heavenly minds. And they thought and cared about heavenly things, and not about earthly things: they lived with their bodies on earth, but with their hearts and minds in heaven. Christian societies are pitiful, they do not honor the saints; they deprive themselves of the holy example of their life, they deprive themselves of their grace-filled intercession. The Lord Himself teaches us to call His saints as intercessors. “And the smoke of incense ascended with the prayers of the saints from the hand of an Angel before God” (Apoc. 8:4). Lutherans, what do you say to this? The Lord wants you to grow spiritually and be fragrant before God with every spiritual virtue, like the beautiful flower of the fields and valleys. This is your purpose, man! But at the same time, the Lord wants you, through repentance and tears, abstinence and vigilance, through the fight against sinful thoughts, inclinations and passions, to avoid every stench of sin, for “The Kingdom of Heaven is in need, and the needy women delight it” (Matthew 11:12). According to whose statutes and laws is the conception, formation and growth of the human body in the womb, its maturation and emergence into the world carried out? According to whose regulations is our body nourished? Who conceived and created such a wondrous variety of countless fruits of the earth, wisely, exquisitely arranged and prepared for our food and pleasure? According to whose regulations is blood produced in our body, without which human life is impossible? Who created the inner and outer man? Isn’t the greatest Sage and Artist, the all-perfect, beginningless, omnipotent Lord our God? Fall on your face - give thanks, revere Him, love Him, but also fear Him, if you do not do His will, do not obey Him... Remember what holy, spiritual, heavenly Divine union you are in (I mean the heavenly and earthly Church); in a living and closest union (communion of the Holy Mysteries) with God Himself, with the Mother of God with the holy angels, with all holy people and all faithful Christians. “He who suffered in the flesh is free from sin” (1 Peter 4:1). This is why suffering, the cross, are necessary for a Christian: without suffering, without dejection, our flesh fools, rages, and sins. He angers God and creates misfortune for himself and his soul. Oh, accursed flesh, multi-passionate, because of which all the troubles in humanity! Oh, many-passionate, nasty heart! What comes from a person defiles a person. “For from within, from the human heart, evil thoughts come: adultery, fornication, murder, theft, covetousness, insults, deceit, flattery, deceit, the evil eye, blasphemy, pride, madness. All this evil comes from within and defiles a person” (Mark 7). This is where the source of evil is in a person - in the heart! “Create a pure heart in me, O God, and renew a right spirit in my womb” (Ps. 50:12)... “It is a treasure, and it is not known to whom I will gather it” (Ps. 38:7). The pitiful state of the rich man’s soul!.. He accumulated countless riches, but lost God and his soul, and prepared eternal torment for her. “Imashi, sell and give to the poor, and have treasure in heaven: and come and follow Me,” says the Lord to the rich young man” (Mark 10:21). “All Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:26), all Israel, that is, true Israelites, like Nathanael, about whom the Lord said: “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in him there is no flattery” (John 1:47). This is how the Israelites will be saved. The majority of Jews will perish for their wickedness and countless atrocities for which they have not repented. Change quickly with a good change, every Christian, until the doors of God’s mercy are closed for you. Do works of mercy, “until it is day, night will come when no one else can do it” (John 9:4). From the incorrect interpretation by Catholics of the words of the Savior: “you are ecu Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church” (Matthew 16:18), many errors of Catholics come, and especially the imaginary viceroy of popes on earth. They are only servants... The poison of countless sins has infected the entire being of a person, and always seeks to hide from a person, to hide its ugliness, its ridiculous appearance, so that a person does not hate it and feel complete disgust for it, which he really deserves. And he always flatters a person; presents itself in an attractive form, and, as it should, demands obedience and satisfaction (fox). “Hallowed be Thy name: Thy kingdom come: Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 6:10). Do you, sinner, desire holiness? Are you jealous, possessed by the destroyer enemy the devil, of the kingdom of God? Do you want to fulfill the righteous and all-good will of God? Do you desire and pray to God that all people know and do the will of our heavenly Father? We say these words of the Lord’s Prayer every day without a deep understanding of their meaning and throw them as if to the wind, and therefore there is no good change in us, but we all remain the same sinners, careless and evil. “I am the door: through me whoever enters will be saved” (John 10:9). Christ is the mental door - where to? To paradise, to the kingdom of heaven, through faith in Christ, the Redeemer and Savior - the door to His Church, which is entrusted with the true teaching of Christ, the saving sacraments and the guidance of shepherds. Without Christ, without the Church, there is no other door to the Kingdom of Heaven. Those who have fallen away from faith in Christ, from the Church, will perish if they do not turn and repent. The Son of God came to earth in order to restore and save the human race through His teaching, miracles, example, suffering and death, to enlighten, purify, renew, adorn it with every virtue and unite it with Himself forever. And Leo Tolstoy, with writers like him, appeared and live on earth in order to darken and corrupt with their godlessness, unbelief and anarchy the countless number of people who follow them and read their blasphemous works. Lord, destroy them from the earth, or convert them to faith, humble their demonic pride! If Jesus Christ had intended to give His Church, upon His ascension into heaven, another head in His place, or a vicar, as the popes say, considering themselves the vicars of Christ on earth, then He would have clearly announced this before His ascension; for this is a very important dogma for the salvation of human souls; and the apostles would have announced this, or one of them would have called himself a viceroy; otherwise none of them said a word, remembering the words of the Lord: “If he wants to be first in you, he will be your servant” (Matthew 20:26)... Remember the Savior’s words about the rich, how difficult it is for them to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 10:24), and that their lot is eternal torment for their attachment to wealth and for their hardness of heart towards the poor: for they depart from Christ with sadness when He invites them to sell their property and give it to the poor, for whom they do not care. In general, the rich are pitiful, as if they have gone wild and rely on life not in God, but in the abundance of acquisitions, ready to take off the poor man’s last shirt. Our wealth is God and His truth and mercy. I was in the villages and saw peasant life: what poverty everywhere, what rags, with countless patches! What haggard faces!.. What mournful faces! Are they stepsons and not children of God? The rich don’t even want to look at them—they don’t want to clothe them, feed them, comfort them! What is the soul of the rich! How disgusting she is to God who loves mankind! Do not please the rich, do not flatter, do not envy him, but cry for him as for the most pitiful person! As a result of deviation from the truth of the Gospel,... Catholics, defending their untruth, are angry with the Orthodox, hate them, blaspheme them with all sorts of unrighteous and blasphemous words, and blaspheme our truest faith in every possible way. Instead of, in order to restore truth and peace, renounce their false, harmful and destructive opinions and come into agreement with Orthodoxy, they consider themselves to have the right to stand for lies and affirm lies to their destruction. Catholics, come to your senses, wake up! You have been misled! Return to the truth! Treat every person sincerely, lovingly, in simplicity of heart, without hypocrisy, regardless of their faces, as you would like others to treat you. Treat the holy saints of God with special reverence and love, pray to them. God willing, you will see them in the next century face to face, their lordship and glory, which God has vouchsafed to them, and you will be convinced that you did not in vain honor them and call them here on earth, being in the flesh and being in the Church of God, to which they, like you, belong, as members of the one Body of Christ, of which He is the Head. Do not envy the stingy and hard-hearted rich people who unjustly became rich at the expense of the poor people. They perish in their vanity and enrichment and have completely fallen away from God. Remember that “the earth and the works in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10). Do not be jealous of those who are enriched in the body, but do not care for the immortal soul, and pray for them, those who are perishing, darkened by their souls, and always have God in your heart - the true wealth of a believer... He who envies the wealth of others thereby reveals a hidden desire to take possession of their industry and wealth, and at the same time reveals the emptiness of his mind and heart and the lack of faith in God, by whom every person lives, and love for his weak neighbor. If God were the wealth of his heart, he would never envy earthly and perishable wealth, considering it vain and greatly hindering the salvation of the soul, for it is extremely difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, and it is easy to perish... “You will die in your sins: if you do not have faith, as I am” (John 8:24), says the Lord to the Pharisees. Woe to Leo Tolstoy, who does not believe in the Lord and is dying in the sin of unbelief and blasphemy. “The death of sinners is cruel” (Ps. 33:22)... Oh, the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and scribes! Oh, their accursed pickiness towards the sinless God, who walks the earth in the flesh with His disciples! The simple-hearted, humble disciples of Christ, following the Savior through the sown field, became hungry, plucked the ears of grain, rubbed them with their hands and ate on the Sabbath day. Of course, such a visible violation of the Sabbath commandment found enemies in the evil Pharisees, and they began to grumble about the violation of the Sabbath. But the Lord, denouncing their hypocrisy and envy, defended the righteousness of his disciples. But now, I ask you, man, do you feel spiritual hunger and thirst to eat the vital, supernatural ear - the Flesh and Blood of Christ the Life-Giver, the true heavenly bread that gives life to the world? If you do not feel this saving hunger, then it means you are spiritually dead. A person beginning to recover, or a healthy person, naturally feels hungry and thirsty. How many of these dead people, who do not feel the thirst for salvation, are there in Russia? Darkness! Countless intellectuals never go to communion at all, some people come very rarely, many take communion only once a year. And the Lord calls out daily: “take... eat... drink... all of you...”. (Matthew 26:26–27) and there is no eating or drinking. The vital element of your soul is in the Orthodox Church and in the Orthodox church: there is the throne of God, there is the Holy Gospel, there are the messages of the godly apostles, there is heavenly worship, there are the faces of the Lord, the Mother of God, angels and saints, there is incense to the Lord, there are lamps and candles burning and signifying the burning of your spirit before God. Rest your soul there. I feel sad about people who do not read the Word of God at all, but read only newspapers and secular literature. Woe to them from ignorance of the Word of God and the will of God about them. What answer will they give to God at the trial? From the all-good God - only good things happen, and not evil - and your very illness is good, but you grumble, are faint-hearted, despondent: be patient, give thanks. For free indulgences in youth - involuntary illnesses in old age. Everyone, change, be transformed internally: humble yourself and consider yourself the last of people; Never be proud of anything or boast, for what good thing do you have that is not from God? All good things come from Him. Change envy to kindness. If you are living an adulterous life, immediately leave your uncleanness and be zealous for the purity of your thoughts and desires. If your will is evil, correct it and be blameless in your inward parts. If you are a lover of money, leave your partiality and hardness of heart towards the poor and be merciful. If you are grumpy and quarrelsome, become modest and live in peace with everyone. If you are lazy towards prayer and virtue, be careful in future. If you are a drunk, now live sober. If you stole, from now on give it yourself. If you are crafty, be simple and unhypocritical. All of you, rise to the height of virtues, like a mountain, and shake off your sins, like mud, like uncleanness, like corruption and a source of corruption. The Transfiguration of Christ on Tabor shows that if the local sunlight is so beautiful and life-giving, then how much more beautiful and life-giving is the future, eternal, non-evening light. A person who is unscrupulous and fearless, if even during your illness you think about sin or desire adultery, then what would happen without illness? Illness pacifies and kills passion. Lord, have mercy on Your servant who sins many times against You at every hour and grant repentance before the end. Why does the Holy Church annually remember and celebrate the highest events of the Christian world, for example, the Annunciation, the Nativity of Christ, Epiphany, Resurrection, etc.? In order to kindle and strengthen our faith, our Christian hope, our gratitude and love for God and the Mother of God, our Intercessor before God, in order to remember and not forget our heavenly, eternal fatherland and not have an addiction to this, only preparatory and educational, temporary, transitory life. If there weren’t these Christian holidays, then Christians could forget that they are Christians, called to the heavenly fatherland... Church holidays explain all this to us and make us aware of God’s providence for us sinners, teach us to love and thank God and always keep in mind the future life, which has no end, and prepare for it. I glorify God’s immeasurable mercy and long-suffering towards me and all people. For seventy years, I sinned every day and repented, and the Lord had mercy on me, did not punish me in all His righteousness, expecting my correction every day. The days of my youth passed, and in a higher educational institution - the Academy, I began to be more attentive to my inner world. Having become a priest, I did not live without sin, but I delved deeper and deeper into the meaning of my calling - and the Lord had mercy on me every day, giving me tears of repentance, granting me frequent communion of the Holy Mysteries. My service to the Holy Church, performing prayers and sacraments was not without stumbling, invisible enemies fought hard and captivated me, confused me, especially when performing the sacraments; the struggle was for life and death (spiritual death). I repented, cried, was overcome, and received forgiveness. During the first years of my priesthood, I did not celebrate the liturgy every day, and therefore I often became spiritually weakened. Then, seeing the benefit of daily celebration of the Liturgy and communion of the Holy Mysteries, I began to serve and receive communion daily, and throughout all the years of priesthood and service to God, how much mercy I received from Him! There are no numbers. I thank the Lord for the wonderful prayers, evening and morning, for the rules for Holy Communion. How many tears of purifying tenderness the Lord gave me, what streams of mercy he poured out on me, and this every day - even until now. What will I render to the Lord for all these mercies? My iniquities have multiplied more than the sand of the sea, and - I am still alive, and I still repent, without ceasing to sin in deed, word, thought, laziness, negligence, intemperance and every sin characteristic of man! Oh, God, be merciful to me, a sinner, again and again! Have patience with me, who have grown old in iniquities, and cleanse me from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Amen. The words of the Lord Jesus Christ are terrible: “Where their worm” (sinners) “does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Matthew 9:54). These words will come true in all truth and power on unrepentant sinners: adulterers, murderers, thieves, and others. Oh, cry, sinner, with bloody tears for the terrible misfortune that is coming to you. Believe it or not, this misfortune will creep up on you unnoticed... The necessity of the incarnation and death of the Son of God... is clearly expressed in the words of the Apostle Paul: “For the children” (all the fallen descendants of Adam) “have partaken of flesh and blood, and He sincerely partook of the same, so that by death he will abolish the power of death, that is, the devil: And he will deliver these, who are guilty of the fear of death through all their lives. work" (slavery). “When he receives, he does not receive from an angel, but from the seed of Abraham he receives” (Heb. 2:14-16). This is a lesson for Tolstoyans and all senseless intellectuals who attach too much importance to the blind human mind. In my old age (79) every day there is a special mercy of God, every hour and every minute; My physical strength is exhausted, but my spirit is vigorous and burning towards my beloved Bridegroom - the Lord Jesus Christ. How many guarantees of mercy I have received and receive from God in this life, I hope for the same after death - and death is birth into eternal life by God’s mercy and love for mankind. I believe in the all-cleansing intercession of the most honorable Blood of Christ God, shed for the remission of the sins of the whole world (who believe accurately and in truth) and my sins; I believe in the all-powerful intercession of this Blood, which speaks better than Abel’s. Catholics have rejected this all-gifted Blood for the laity and do not give it to them, probably out of economy, so that less wine comes out. And with what frantic zeal they try to lure the Orthodox into Catholicism, into their destructive faith. Protect, Lord, Orthodoxy from fierce Catholicism, in which everything is subject to the arbitrariness of the pope... The main illness of the rich young man, which is spoken of in the Gospel, was that he was passionately devoted to self-interest, the love of money - from head to toe, and his heart was not merciful, but cruel, uncompassionate towards the poor; and he lied to the Lord, the Knower of the Heart, that he had kept all the commandments from his youth: he did not love either God or his neighbor, he loved only himself, he loved to save and collect... He saw a hungry person - he did not feed him, he did not clothe the naked, he did not help anyone in need in any way. And now, you see, it’s a pity for what was collected, it’s a pity to give it away. Will he pray - he thinks about money, not God, in general he only thinks about earthly things, and not about how to love God and neighbor more passionately, to do good more diligently. But he fulfilled the commandments only out of appearance, as if for show to others. Oh, my damned soul, flee from such hypocrisy and double-mindedness! A wonderful expression from the canon of St. To John the Baptist: “"In your speech you once sank the abyss, the all-wise Baptist, who through grace made the flood of all crime" (of the human race), "but I pray, dry up the streams of my sins through your divine intercession." "The abyss of truth and holiness and the mercy of God, Christ God, having suffered and died for us and resurrected, has drowned with His grace all the crime of the believer. in Him for the human race. What a joyful thought for us sinners, what hope in the merits of Christ! He can drown all our sins with a word and cast them into the depths of the sea. Satan was and is the cause of all human sins, although people themselves are to blame for them through their unrepentance (repent!), and the Lord destroys all the filth of sins. Glory to His truth and mercy! Eve was seduced by the forbidden fruit - and so all of humanity fell into worldly delusion and began to be seduced by everyone, and the woman herself became an object of delusion through her physical beauty - and everything, everything became an object of delusion for man: food, and drink or drinks of all kinds, and clothes, and money, and all sorts of games and amusements, and animals: dogs, cats, birds - man became addicted to everything - and God was no longer in his heart... Oh, ungrateful animal - man! Oh, stupid animal, although respected by reason! What kind of executions do you deserve, evil-willed! Through his fall, man “went to the left” - he went extremely far to the left, moving away from God the Giver of Life, losing righteousness and life and inheriting the cunning of the enemy, his vanity, malice, pride, envy and death. It was necessary to make a reverse move, and this he could not do without the special, omnipotent will of God, without the atonement of the Lamb of God, the right, sinless God-man. It was necessary to return the lost righteousness, holiness and truth, but the devil took such possession of his sacrifice that without a ransom corresponding to eternal and infinite righteousness he did not want to return the sacrifice to God the Creator, and man was forced to suffer for centuries and millennia until the Deliverer of the human race came to earth: to fulfill all the truth, to suffer for the unrighteous and die for them, to trample death and rise from the dead, giving to all Resurrection. Such a strong enemy held us in bonds of death! I mentally compare cities, especially capitals, and villages, and am amazed at the contrast between them: in the cities there is insane luxury, millions spent on unnecessary splendor, brilliance and elegance, and in the villages there is extreme squalor,... the furnishings are the simplest, rye bread, the stew that God gives, sometimes water or tea for drinking, not for everyone, but according to everyone’s wealth. Estate: two or three cattle, a horse and several sheep for food and clothing. And if you take into account the constant fires that burn everything in the village to the ground, you will be surprised how poor peasants are still alive. The townspeople are drowning in wealth, the village is drowning in poverty. Villagers are martyrs, eternally mournful people. Of these latter, many will become the first in the next century. The Divine economy of human salvation is true to itself to the iota throughout the space of all centuries, and the promises of the Lord to the faithful and those who strive are true to the iota. Not a single one who walked faithfully and steadily in the path of the Lord was ashamed or perished, but received an imperishable reward for his exploits - the kingdom of heaven... And how does the world look at people of faith and piety? Like superstitious and frenzied people, they do not believe in the truth of God’s economy and therefore perish in their unbelief. Oh, the wonderful truth of the Divine economy of human salvation! And the enemy of our salvation has remained faithful to his evil, destructive system for about eight thousand years: to ensnare people into destruction with all sorts of temptations and passions. And how many, how many he has destroyed and brought to hell the careless and unfaithful, proud, crafty and evil people - from every nation, language, condition, sex and age, how wide is his fiery mouth with which he devours the infidels. The world is a collection of dead souls, the head and prince of which is the devil, the father of lies. The Church, in its true meaning, is a gathering or union of living souls, the Head of which is Christ the Giver of Life and the Comforter. The world lies in evil. The world is a collection of those blind with the eyes of the heart. The Church is a gathering of those who see everything in the true light. All people who have not been regenerated are subject to blindness of heart, but the class of pseudo-scientists and writers of the bureaucratic world, students, women - are subject, for the most part, to the most disastrous blindness from proud conceit, and it is only worse that they are not aware of their misfortune and will see it when they die, and when all life seems to them in full view. Contemporary events confirm the truth of these words. In their spiritual blindness they do crazy things. Don't hold your heads too high and proud, you scientists, but unbelievers (though not all). You are far, far from true wisdom and true knowledge and from the source of life, from the true path. Many of you who have not tasted true wisdom, Christian wisdom, who have not believed in Christ as the true God, in His Gospel, in His Church, the only true and right teacher of truth and giver of life, are blind and dead, although you seem to yourself to be wise. “The Lord is wise; where is the scribe, where is the questioner of this age; Has not God put on the wisdom of this world” (1 Cor. 1:20). If you want to have true knowledge, true wisdom and life, put aside your pride, your conceit, your arrogance, humble yourself sincerely, go again to learn from the former fishermen and abandon your rotten, corruptible and foolish wisdom. Descend from your heights, sit lower, bow your heads and your ears to the eternal truths. Indeed, it is not Leo Tolstoy who has completely lost his wisdom, but the Church, which he tramples under foot, the apostles and evangelists, and the ecumenical holy fathers and teachers. Stop drinking the dead water of novels and all sorts of endlessly multiplied books of stinking worldly wisdom. If you don’t listen, you will remain forever learned blind people who do not know the true path, and you will die in your sins and inherit eternal darkness. It is enough to laugh at the eternal and living truths: with love we call you into the depths of the Church: wake up from sinful hibernation and passionate hypnosis, which you completely unfairly label us with, and which we attribute to you in all fairness. Proskomedia visually depicts the entire Church with the Head - Christ and the members of heaven, earth and the departed. Oh, the wonderful unity of God with people! The Roman Catholics rejected proskomedia and thereby beheaded the Church, breaking the obvious connection between the visible, militant Church and the invisible, triumphant Church, in order to give instead of Christ another head - a man not free from errors, of which she makes her members - clergy and laity - participants. Oh, what a wise, true, and saving institution of the Church, protected from error by the Holy Spirit and Christ, the Almighty Head. See how the Lady praises God-loving humility: “For the Lord has looked upon” (the Lord) “the humility of His Servant, for from now on all kin will please Me” (Luke 1:48). And how he condemns pride, because of which the fall of so many angels happened, with thrones, powers, authorities: “Create power with Your arm: squander the proud in the thoughts of their hearts” (Luke 1:51). Who are these proud people in the thoughts of their hearts? Fallen Lucifer and his angels, the whole kingdom of demons! Oh, how much more human suffering and sacrifice there must be to fill the number of fallen angels! And it is replenished! How many victims of death, especially in these years of anarchy, impunity and terror! How many innocent babies die every day! How many were killed for the faith, the king and the fatherland. They all replenish the number of fallen angels! God! How righteous, good, wise, strange, incomprehensible are Your deeds! Death reaps and mows down countless victims. Lord, preserve Your Church unshakably! “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5.48) Diligent repentance, daily and hourly, should lead us to correction, to virtue and perfection. Day by day, hour by hour we must become better. Repentance should cause sighing and tears, as in the publican and the harlot. You, intellectuals, have abandoned heavenly wisdom and grabbed hold of earthly vanity, lies, mirage, impenetrable darkness: and you will be punished by your own madness, your passions. You have neglected the living water, the life-giving light, the salt of the earth, and you are exhausted in your eternal corruption; you will not see the light of God forever, but you will remain in darkness. You preferred Leo Tolstoy, the highest secular writers, to Christ, who multiplied their writing to infinity so that there is no time for a Christian to take up the word of God, which is the Source of purity, light, truth, eternal life and bliss. “I confess, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid this from the wise and prudent, and revealed it as a child” (Matthew 11:25). When the Savior, by His infinite goodness, wanted to fulfill at the end of centuries the eternal advice about the salvation of the human race perishing by sin, and to find the missing royal drachma and to seek the lost sheep of His verbal flock, then, taking upon Himself a human image, He chose as assistants to Himself, His great work, simple disciples and apostles, fishermen by occupation, and through them showed in practice that the work of salvation ours does not depend on worldly nobility, learning or earthly wisdom, but that it is the only work of God, the work of His goodness, wisdom, power and mercy of God. “But God has chosen the turmoil of the world, that he may put to shame the wise” (1 Cor. 1:27). Only what God has created and is creating has the property of indestructible firmness and constancy, as evidenced by heaven and earth, and the entire expanse of heaven, hitherto visible to us in all its wondrous beauty. Human affairs and institutions are fickle, shaky, changeable, because man himself is a fallen, weak, changeable creature. What is the history of the human race? The history of falls, then uprisings, the history of the vacillation of human thoughts, family and social life - and the history of the falls of kingdoms and peoples or individual cities and institutions. What picture does our time present? A picture of the falls of all societies. Where is the reason for such weakness of minds, classes, institutions, deliberately gathering to establish a wavering state and, meanwhile, wavering; where is the cause of darkness, weakness and fall? In unbelief, in falling away from God, from God's wise commands, in trusting blindly in one's own mind, in following one's passions. And rightly so: without God, without the mind of God, without the law of God, without the Church of God, which is “the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15), societies cannot stand firmly, and their institutions cannot have firm support, and therefore they all fall apart, for it is said: “without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Resort to the holy and all-powerful prayers of the Mother of God, do not deprive yourself of this grace. Her prayer for propitiation for everyone and for herself prevails. Amen. The sinful will, perceived through foolishness, carelessness and skill in youth, remains in the soul and in the flesh until adulthood, and sometimes until old age and generally throughout life. Remember and beware! In every person, even if he is wise, there is a lot of stupidity, sometimes disgusting stupidity. Every moment, man, beware of yourself, of your stupidity: this greatest stupidity is sin, from which all harm comes. Lord, lead Russia to the true and salutary path for all the suffering and martyrdom of her faithful children from deadly weapons... Lord, plant firm faith in the hearts of all her sons, may Your Church shine with Orthodoxy, with unfeigned piety; Teach all classes of the state to walk in Your ways!.. Do you feel like you are in a state of loss, in the state of a lost person? And what is this loss? In a very important matter, you have lost in yourself what was essentially embedded in our nature, you have lost the likeness of God, and often the very image of God, which you have corrupted, disfigured, desecrated. Look quickly for this lost drachma. Lord, save the Russian people, the Orthodox Church in Russia, they are perishing: depravity is everywhere, unbelief is everywhere, blasphemy, and anarchy. Lord, save the Autocrat and make Him wise! Lord, everything is in Your hands. You are the Almighty! How painful it is for the body and dark for the soul together - the absence of the sun. How everything became numb and dead from the extreme cold! How sad, painful, boring. And what is it like for the human soul to be without the grace of God, without prayer, without the Word of God, without worship, without communion of the Holy Mysteries! For many, only death will show all the orphanhood, poverty, misery of their souls! God bless. Fifty-two years of my priesthood have been fulfilled by God’s grace and mercy, I am still alive, although I am sick. For so many years of grace-filled priesthood, I will not be able to thank the Lord, one in the Trinity. As best he could, as best he could, as hard as he tried, he served, but he made a lot of mistakes and was unwell; The enemy fought hard. Cover, Lord, all my sins with Your mercy! As sins are repeated, a habit of them is formed; as sins are repeated, the will to good weakens more and more, and the will to evil becomes stronger - so that it becomes difficult to resist sin. One must accustom oneself to every virtue in such a way that it becomes, as it were, a natural property in a person. Don’t get angry at soulless things and don’t scold them when they don’t work out the way they should, or they get in the way of your business. You will get used to being angry at things, you will be angry with people even without reason, and you will fall away from love, and love is the essence of all God’s law. Love your neighbor as yourself. “The Lord says: Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who harm you and those who drive you out” (Matthew 5:44). So, love our enemies: Poles, Finns, Georgians, Armenians, Jews, Caucasian tribes - they strongly hate and are sick with devilish hatred, they are pathetic, unhappy, subject to passions and a hundred times need our pity, sympathy, hatred has blinded their heartfelt eyes, they are at enmity against God, who commanded love to everyone... “Overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12, 21). I would like to see the original Goodness, Lightness, Beauty, and endless Wisdom. The power that created and carries and controls everything, but I am not ready, I am unclean in heart. I have this promise: “Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, creating holiness in the passion of God” (2 Cor. 7:1). How holy is the Orthodox faith and the Church! How righteous, full of God’s peace, full of infinite and indescribable beauty (imagine the names of all the saints, remember their lives, full of every virtue and miracles during life and after death). The Church satisfies all the needs of the human spirit and saves everyone who is devoted to it and faithful until the end of their lives. Glory to Thy faith, O Lord, holy Orthodox. The papists, recognizing the pope as the head of the Church, placed him on the throne instead of Christ and deified him, and placed Christ in the background. The Pope was made the vicar of Christ, while Christ remains with us “all the days until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). But look how many errors are allowed in the papal (and not Christ’s) faith, strange blasphemous errors - and you will turn away from it with indignation and horror! Oh, human pride! Oh, satanic pride! Dad seems to be infallible! Oh, Jesuitism! P> If the Pope of Rome were completely of one mind and unanimous and of the same doctrine with the Lord, he could, although not in the proper sense, be called the Head of the Church. But since he has different views and is contrary to Christ, he is a heretic and cannot be called the Head of the Church, for she is “the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15), and the pope and papists are a reed shaken by the wind, and have completely perverted the truth of Christ both in teaching and in worship (unleavened bread and without proskomedia), and in government, enslaving their heresies all of Catholicism and making it incorrigible... “And he became a Pharisee, praying within himself...”. What does the all-seeing, all-righteous, terrible, judging Eye read in the Pharisee’s soul (for the Pharisee did not pray out loud, but secretly, to himself)? “God, I give you praise, for I am not like other men, predators, unrighteous, adulterers” (Luke 18:11). By Pharisee one can understand all the arrogant, arrogant in their knowledge, rank and intelligence, vanity of learning, wealth, beauty, strength, successes, and with pride and contempt looking at sinful, but humble and repentant humanity in the soul, whose inner eye, enlightened by the light of grace, is turned inward, into the depths of the heart and contemplates the entire abyss of sin, all corruption, which sin brought into our nature, all guilt before the justice of God, all its punishment from the Divine judgment and, humbly recognizing its sins, cries out from the depths of a humble heart for mercy: “God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13). This is what the righteous Eye saw, what the righteous Eye read in the heart of the publican: It saw, It read in one ignorant pride and arrogance, and in the other (the publican) the humble consciousness of many sins and the sinner’s irresponsibility before the highest righteousness. What countless numbers of arrogant Pharisees see the Divine Eye, especially in the present time, a time of godlessness, a time of worship of one’s own mind, one’s own writing talent, a time of worship of gold and silver idols, a time of seeking power over subordinates! You pathetic, senseless, short-sighted, blind people, you do not assume and do not think that all your judgments are frivolous, evil, all your passions are inscribed with an indelible chisel - there in heaven, in the book of God's eternal destinies, and even in your consciences - and all will be revealed at the national court and will bring you unbearable shame and righteous condemnation. Now you are hiding from human judgment and from your conscience and doing lawless deeds with impunity, spending your time in games, carnal pleasures, or in idleness and ridicule. Not a single thought will be hidden there. Consider your sins here while there is time for repentance. The doors will soon be closed, and you will knock in vain and say: “Lord, Lord, open to us.” The answer will be to you: “We do not know you” (Matthew 25:11). You are the first here everywhere, and you will be the last there, that is, in hell, and the last, the repentant tax collectors, will be the first. On this universal threshing floor, the shovel will take out all the tares and burn them with unquenchable fire, and will gather the wheat into the heavenly granary. So, “let the unrighteous still do injustice; let the unclean one still become unclean; let the righteous still do righteousness; and let the holy one be sanctified again. Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to reward everyone according to his deeds” (Apoc. 22:11-12). What will you do, unbelievers, unprepared, weakened, corrupted to the bones of your marrow, when the terrible judgment of God befalls you, unexpectedly, like the Japanese war, like the Russian revolution! Then they will not give you time to enter the house to take any necessary thing: “one will be eaten, and another will be left” (Matthew 24:40). When praying to God and the saints, you need to force yourself to put aside all worldly attachments to people and things, or any partiality towards people and things, and force yourself to love everyone as brothers and sisters with all goodwill, as yourself. You, priest of God, servant of the Most High Creator, serve the Liturgy with fear and proper preparation, especially if you serve daily, see what you do with your womb, which is daily the church of God through the communion of the saints, life-giving Mysteries of Christ: an instrument of gluttony and delicacy, an instrument of the devil, who through the womb dragged the human race into hell and plunged it curse? Hold fast to the fast commanded by the Savior, pay attention to yourself and others, and save yourself and the people. Have you, priest, appropriated yourself to Christ with all your thoughts, with all your soul and with all your heart, so that He may appropriate you to Himself and dwell in you and create an abode in you? Do not love gifts more than the Benefactor, do not love perishable food more than incorruptible food - the most pure Body and Blood of Christ; for some love their delicacies more than this heavenly, incorruptible, life-giving food. Catholics, recognizing the Pope, the real Head of the Church - Christ, as the head of the Church, lost and were left without a Head. The entire history of the papacy testifies that Catholics do not have a Head, because they repeat inappropriate things, they fight against the Orthodox Church and not only spiritually, but in the flesh - with hatred, malice, revenge, all sorts of curses, murders from around the corner, arson, riots, rioting, disobedience, separatism, despite the fact that the Poles in Russia live freely, favorably, permissively, in contentment for everyone, like other nations. The hatred of Catholics for the Orthodox is historical, the most frantic: Catholic priests and bishops, and many Polish intellectuals, are ready to swallow us alive. Enlighten, enlighten and save them, Lord! Where is their Head of the Church – Christ? He is love, goodness, meekness, mercy, long-suffering, and Catholics have nothing of the kind. And how many heresies, innovations, and deviations from the truth are there in dogmas? O disastrous papal system! All the saints recognized themselves and felt that they were sinners, and they all sincerely repented, cried, showed possible consciousness of sins - voluntary and involuntary, ascended the degrees of repentance and correction, exercised themselves in every virtue and achieved holiness, likeness and attribution to God. We read their prayers every day, are touched by them, cry with them and receive mercy from the Lord. Glory to His mercy, His long-suffering, His good-will, and His kindness. How blessed are we to have such a God, strong in mercy and good in strength, to help and comfort all those who trust in his mercy! Oh, Divine, most holy, most heavenly, all-encompassing, centering heaven and earth, Orthodox liturgy! How wonderful, how desirable you are, how full of infinite goodness, wisdom, truth, holiness of God, incomprehensible greatness! Already your preliminary part, the proskomedia, briefly and in general terms depicts your Divine greatness, salvation and heavenly beauty. Here, in unequal parts of wheat bread, the following are figuratively represented: 1) The Lamb of God Himself, Jesus Christ, who takes away the sins of the world; 2) the Mother of God, in whose honor a triangular particle is taken from a special prosphora and placed on the right side of the Lamb; 3) The faces of all the saints: the Forerunners, prophets, apostles, saints, martyrs, saints, unmercenaries, the holy righteous Godfather Joachim and Anna, the saints of the day and the saint whose name the liturgy bears. This is the heavenly triumphant Church, which has unity with the earthly Church; 4) The entire earthly Church is represented in figurative particles: the entire bishopric of the church on earth, the honest presbytery, the deaconry in Christ, as a serving rank during the sacraments, prayers and teaching; 5) Finally, the third tribe of the Church is figuratively represented - the children of the Church who died in faith and repentance! See what a wonderful, all-encompassing Divine union of the heavenly, the earthly and the deceased! Pleasantly, majestically, divinely, in the middle of the paten stands the Lamb of God, slain and perforated, that is, the quadrangular large part of the bread, which has to be transformed into the body of Christ, and next to the paten stands the holy chalice, the image of that wonderful cup of wine, about which at the Last Supper the Lord proclaimed: “Drink of it, all of you: this is My Blood of the New Testament” (Matthew 26, 22). But listen to what the priest reads, what prayer ends the proskomedia: “O God, our God, Heavenly Bread, food for the whole world, our Lord and God Jesus Christ, who sent Savior and Deliverer and Benefactor, blessing and sanctifying us, bless this offer yourself and accept it into your heavenly altar. Remember that you are good and a lover of mankind, who brought and for the sake of them they brought: and preserve us uncondemned in the sacred rite of Your Divine Mysteries...” What touching Divine love is depicted in this prayer to the Heavenly Father! How inexpressible, not only by human, but also by angelic spiritual lips, is God’s love for the world! Not any earthly food, not any manna from heaven, but He gave the Flesh and Blood of His Son Himself for food and drink, into closest communion and co-dissolution with us! Oh, inexpressible love, oh, the highest honor! Oh, condescension that strikes all the angelic, cherubic and seraphim minds! Oh, the wisdom of God! Oh, the truth of God, the mercy, beauty and greatness of the indescribable sacrament. And we, unworthy priests or bishops, perform this liturgy so often, we partake of the Holy Mysteries, sometimes daily! Oh, the triumph of God's love. Oh bliss! Oh, affirmation, our deification, so often perceived! How do we view liturgy? Is it with love, thanksgiving and everlasting fear? Do we always change with good change? Are we becoming heavenly, divine, holy? Starting to perform the proskomedia, the priest, marking the lamb prosphora with three copies, says: “In remembrance of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ,” and then, preparing the square part of the prosphora, signifying the future Lamb or the future most pure Body of Christ, he says the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Like a sheep led to the slaughter” and so on, and with the words: “Like His belly will be lifted up from the ground,” he takes the quadrangular part from the middle of the prosphora and places it on the paten and, opening it crosswise, says: “The Lamb of God is being eaten, take away the sin of the world, for the worldly belly and salvation”; piercing it on the side, he says: “One of the warriors carried out His side with a spear, and from it came forth blood and water: and he who saw it testified, and truly this is his testimony” (John 19:34). Oh, the indescribable love of God! Oh, inexpressible miracle of miracles - the liturgy! Fall before it, humanity, and shed tears of repentance: after all, it is being accomplished for your sins. The people of the first, antediluvian world were given 120 years of time to repent, and they were warned that for their sins there would be a general punishment from God - a flood. Time passed, and people were corrupted and did not think about repentance and did not believe the righteous preacher of repentance, Noah, and the word of God was fulfilled exactly. The Jews did not believe the prophets that they would be captured by the Babylonian king, and continued to worship idols - and went into captivity, and Jerusalem was destroyed and all the wealth went to Babylon. The Jews contemporary to Jesus Christ did not believe in Christ as the Messiah and killed Him by death on the cross, and Christ’s prophecy about the fall of Jerusalem was soon fulfilled; the Jews were exterminated by the Romans without mercy. So is the present time: the people are mad, they do not heed the cry of the Holy Church - they say: these are fairy tales, the priests are deceiving us for their income. Oh, blind, oh, stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart, are not all the events predicted by the Gospel and now coming true before your eyes: here is a war of extermination, a famine, pestilence. Do you really still not believe in God’s Justice? But know that judgment is at the door and the Lord is coming soon, with the glory of “judging the living and the dead” (2 Tim. 4:1). God gave us, sinners, suffering from countless passions, as a merciful Doctor - repentance, as spiritual medicine, as life. Every sincere soul thirsts for repentance, like a life-giving drink, like food that strengthens the soul and body, like a blind person - light. The gift of repentance was granted to us by the Heavenly Father by Jesus Christ and by Him alone, for He alone fulfilled for us all the truth, all the law of God, which no one could fulfill on his own; for He alone took upon Himself the curse with which the Heavenly Father righteously cursed the rebellious humanity; He alone endured all the torments for us and for us tasted death, which we earned for ourselves as an inevitable dowry of sin. If the Lord Jesus Christ had not voluntarily sacrificed Himself for us, we would not have been given repentance, but for the sake of His sacrifice, it is given to all believers, and all those who truly understand diligently use it, are changed by the Divine change, become new people, with new thoughts, desires, intentions, deeds and are saved, enlightened and appropriated to God. Only the wicked unbelievers: the proud, the stubborn and the lazy – perish. What pitiful, sick, poor Thy people, Lord! How much poverty, squalor, and resentment from people! How pitiful are Your people, O Lord, Your wealth, which You acquired with Your Blood! I love the great Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John for his meek, but formidable and decisive sermon to the Pharisees and Sadducees: “To Him is the spade in His hand, and He will cut off His threshing floor, and will gather His wheat into the barn, and will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12). Listen or read more often these menacing words of the Lord - and repent, modern Pharisees and Sadducees and all intellectuals and ignoramuses in the Law. Wait for the terrible fulfillment of the latter, and for all who strive, the blessed promise of the Lord. Amen. For the sake of the atoning death of the God-man for the world, the whole world stands and all centuries stand indestructibly; for this hour of innocent, redemptive death, the Lord suffers for a long time to all lawless people, blasphemers, traitors to the faith and the Church; During this hour, hell has not yet opened its terrible mouth to devour the unrepentant, as it is said: “Depart from Me, cursed, into everlasting fire... And these go into everlasting torment...” (Matthew 25:41, 46). It was terribly difficult for all nature at the hour of death of the God-man: it is no coincidence that “the earth shook and the stones disintegrated: And the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the departed saints rose up” (Matthew 27:51-52). But nature held firmly with the hand of the Almighty, and is still holding on... It awaits the end, when the human race will turn into a stinking corpse and there will be nothing for it to exist, when the wheat is finally ripe and ready for the final harvest... Then it will be said: “Let go of your sickle and reap, because the time of harvest has come, for the harvest on earth is ripe” (Rev. 14, 15). Is humanity responsible for this terrible ninth hour, in which our Redeemer gave up his ghost? Each soul is responsible, responsible, because the Lord suffered and died for each soul, for each one this infinitely dear price was paid. We must live not for ourselves, but for him who died for us and rose again. This is our responsibility, this is our duty regarding the God-Man who died for us on the cross. And since it is for you, then you must always sincerely repent, for the Lamb of God suffered for your sins as well. How the Lord attracts to Himself through liturgical songs, stichera, canons and the entire composition of the divine service, and until the end of the century He will attract the chosen believers who love God’s service! What a wealth of ardent repentance and heartfelt tenderness is hidden in our worship! Day and night, many ascetics stood in prayer, attracted by love for Christ, and sacrificed the greatest feats of abstinence, prayer and contemplation to the Christ they loved and loved. The saints vigilantly watched all the movements of their hearts and noticed whether any hostility, ill will and malice or envy of anyone, partiality, self-interest nested in them - and immediately uprooted these devilish roots, threw out this hellish leaven, as well as all other passions. All roots and roots were immediately cut off out of God’s jealousy and were not allowed to spread, lest they be suppressed and separated from God. Amen. Caress yourself to the Savior and the Mother of God, like a sincere son or daughter, caress, I say, - while reading the heartfelt canons, akathists to the Sweetest Jesus and the Mother of God, caress yourself to the saints with fervent prayers and the prescribed canons and akathists - and you will not be put to shame, soon you yourself will feel in your heart the heavenly caress from the Holy Spirit, but do not be discouraged if your heart coolly through the gloomy trends of the ethereal enemy. The Lord sees everything and no one leaves Him empty-handed and quickly gives everyone what they deserve. Be patient, for it is said: “In your patience you will gain your souls” (Luke 21:19). Glory to the greatest holiday of the Resurrection of Christ from the dead and the triumph of the Resurrection. Glory to the future general resurrection of people, let none of the wicked dare to darken the glory of this worldwide event: no atheists, no Tolstoy - irresistible glory covers this event, and the Church worthily celebrates it, she is alone in the whole world. The Resurrection of Christ is celebrated in a miserable, beggarly, doll-like way among Catholics and among our schismatics, because it is false, homemade, and not from the Holy Spirit. The Church is the Body of Christ, to which all the saints belong, starting with the Mother of God - all Orthodox Christians, sincere believers and always trying to act in accordance with their Christian calling, all clergy and laity, and finally, all those who have fallen asleep in faith and repentance. Everyone, as members of a single Body, helps each other, and first of all, the saints who labor on earth, and who diligently resort to them. We are especially saved by the all-good and all-powerful, all-righteous Head of the Church - Christ, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). The Liturgy is an all-giving, Divine service for all the living and the dead, and the Blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanses the sins of all believers who repent and fervently pray and are zealous for Christian life. A wonderful all-conciliatory, all-sanctifying, all-purifying, all-renewing liturgy and all-deifying. One must attend the liturgy, participate in its prayers, praise and thank the Lord! Let the person who wants to partake of the Holy Mysteries test himself, and then let him partake of the heavenly bread, the Body of Christ, and drink from the Cup of Life, for “if he eats this bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, he will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:27). So, those who wish to receive communion, test yourself, your conscience, remembering your sins - condemn yourself before the Last Judgment, for if we reasoned, that is, examined our lives in detail and corrected ourselves, then we would not be condemned. In the case of the rich man mentioned in the Gospel, who departed from the Lord with sadness, we see, as now, many rich people, apparently believing and loving the Lord, immediately fall into unbelief and hardness of heart when they are required to give alms to the poor, and leave the preacher with sadness, better desiring to live in wealth than with God. “If you are risen with Christ, seek those on high, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1). In order to fully understand these words, we must remember that through sin man fell completely from God and became entirely earthly, worldly, and not God’s, not spiritual, not heavenly, as he should be, he became a slave to madness, vanity and corruption and was not only not indignant at this state, but was amused, as now, did not think about repentance and did not recognize its necessity, just as proud writers and people in general do not realize this now proud, who have forgotten that they are worms, not people - earth and ashes. The Terrible Blood of the Son of God, offered at the liturgy, intercedes for us daily. And what a wonderful communion the liturgy is – communion with God, the Head of the Church, with all the saints, dead and living. What love should be inflamed by the performer of the sacrament - a bishop or priest! How one must be detached from earthly attachments! Lord, grant them, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, to reverently complete this mystery! Whose words are these: “Come, eat: this is My Body. And having received the cup and given praise, He gave it to them, saying: Drink of it, all of you: for this is My Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28)? Is it not the all-good and all-powerful Creator and the all-generous Savior of the entire human race, the Lamb of God, who took away the sins of the whole world? Arius, the heretic, relegated the Creator to the ranks of creatures, and did not recognize Him as consubstantial and coeternal with the Father, One with Him and the Holy Spirit, a being. Can a creature transform the essence of things into a completely different nature, for example, wheat bread into the most pure Body of God and red grape wine into the life-giving Blood of God? Isn’t it only the Almighty Creator who can create and implement this? But Arius and his like-minded people, of whom there were tens of thousands, did not recognize Jesus Christ as the Creator. This was the great misfortune for the Orthodox and heretics: if they trusted Arius, they would have lost communion with the Church and eternal salvation. The heretic Arius wanted to destroy the saving Orthodox faith and introduce a heretical, destructive faith. Therefore, Orthodox bishops, clergy and Orthodox laymen strongly opposed Arius - and the pious Emperor Constantine Equal-to-the-Apostles himself, who gathered bishops, presbyters and partly deacons from all over the Orthodox world, among whom was Archdeacon Athanasius, who was later appointed archbishop of Alexandria in Egypt. They examined, weighed and refuted the wicked teaching of Arius and his associates and condemned them as ungodly, and compiled an exposition of the Orthodox faith, or the Creed, for all times until the end of the age, according to the clear and powerful and wise teaching of the Holy Spirit of God. And to this day we all agree and unanimously believe in this Creed and do not add a single iota to it, so as not to lose salvation for a false addition, like Catholics. Amen. How disgusting sin, whatever it may be, is to the All-Holy Lord! This is an abomination that separates the sinning soul from Him. “Because sin must be dead, but God is alive in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:11). “From the days of John the Baptist, until now the Kingdom of Heaven has been in need, and the needy women have taken it away” (Matthew 11:12). A person is constantly affected by two invisible forces: good and evil: the power of God, the power of Grace - and the power of the devil, the evil and all-destructive power; Man is placed in this world, as it were, between two fires, one of which is life-giving, about which the Lord says: “Fire has come to burst upon the earth” (Luke 12:49), and the other is a scorching, burning fire. A person must exert effort on himself in order to arouse within himself the Divine fire, the fire of faith and love for God and neighbor. Man lost his first Divine dignity, his rightness, holiness, goodness, meekness and filled his soul with all sorts of sins. So you don’t have purity of heart, this is a big loss, you need to acquire it; there is no constant sympathy for your neighbor in his sorrow, misfortune, poverty, illness - change yourself; you do not have zeal for prayer, you do not have a spiritual taste for prayer, you do not have a spiritual ear for listening to the Word of God - transform yourself, develop your spirit, taste, and spiritual ear in order to listen with love to the Word of God, in order to feel the sweetness of prayer and good deeds. Evil strongly fights a person and forces him to do evil, but good attracts him to himself with his moral beauty, spiritual peace, spiritual freedom; good attracts to itself with the promises of eternal life for victory over passions. “To him who overcomes I will give to sit with Me on My throne, just as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne” (Apoc. 3:21). The “kingdom of heaven,” that is, holiness, purity, righteousness, abstinence, prayer, chastity, love for God and neighbor, is “needed” (Matthew 11:12), in other words, it is achieved with the gracious help of God at the cost of one’s own tireless zeal. The flesh resists the spirit, that is, all virtue, so that we do not do what we want, for the sake of God and the salvation of the soul and for the good of our neighbors. What is required is human resistance to all evil, all passion, all lust. And learning, mastering every virtue. Real life is a spiritual school, a struggle, a feat, a battle with sin or with the spirits of wickedness in heaven, fighting us for evil. Everyone needs to learn to overcome sin within themselves, with the help of God, for without God one cannot reach the threshold, and all strength for life and piety is given from God; you just need to not be lazy to use them. Do you want to learn how to delight the kingdom of heaven with power? Learn from the saints how they labored, how they used every effort on themselves; what selflessness they had; what impartiality to wealth, to worldly honor and glory, to carnal pleasures; what abstinence they had; what zeal for God; what constant prayer; what work, what virtues! And how surely they reached the kingdom of God! None of them were put to shame, all received incorruptible life and eternal glory, eternal bliss, and are beyond any fear of losing the acquired Kingdom of Heaven. Imitate them too, each according to his own strength, read, listen to the Word of God, listen, understand, strive tirelessly for the goal of your life - and you will receive eternal bliss. After all, you worked one way or another for earthly prosperity; work especially to obtain eternal life: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these” (earthly blessings) “will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). Human nature is wonderfully and divinely constructed, and to recreate it it took such a supernatural means - the incarnation of the Son of God, His life on earth, countless miracles, the Divine teaching, suffering, death and resurrection. The fallen image of God, to which the whole world is unequal, was the reason for such supernatural providence of God. Do people understand this? Few people understand and appreciate, and therefore many live unworthily, at random, as if by chance, without thinking about the high goal of the Christian title. “For the image of this world passes away” (1 Cor. 7:31), like corruption, with all its beauty, wealth, sweetness, glory and honor. There are only eternal blessings, treasures, eternal life, truth, love with the holiness and peace of God. Direct the eyes of your heart there: “I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from nowhere will my help come” (Ps. 120:1). Are you, brothers and sisters, interested in the all-redemptive work of Christ, His economy of human salvation, are you interested in the Church, the sacraments, the work of prayer and repentance? To tell the truth, we are interested in everything, sometimes in mere trifles, but not in these things that are infinitely important to us. Where is the mind? Where is the purpose of life? Everyone has many goals... but there is no One that is needed! Where is the soul? The soul is buried in the depths of passions, and already, as if dead, along with a burned conscience, it is silent and does not show itself to be good in any way, because there is no basis for it, and no reason either. Well, where can a riotous drunkard remember about a hungry or cold neighbor, unless the thought comes to his mind, if there is no money for wine, to rob or kill his neighbor and drink himself to death again. What does the rest or sabbath provided by God mean for people who obey Him? To be rewarded with the eternal rest of the righteous, you need to work here for the sake of the kingdom of God, you need constant repentance: water does not flow under a lying stone, you need to struggle. It is necessary to plow the soil of the heart and tear out all the roots of passions and bad habits and plant the wheat of virtue on it. Every day the Lord recreates and recreates me through the service of the liturgy and the communion of the holy life-giving Mysteries. I see, feel, sense this Divine miracle and thank my Creator and Recreator, who creates, heals, and pacifies me as a new creature. What will I bring or what will I render to You, Lord? I have nothing good of my own, everything is Yours. Teach me to love You passionately, O Lord my God! In order to inherit heaven and eternal life and be worthy of the eternal community of holy angels and holy men, you need to purify yourself here on earth, hate sin and love truth, one truth, and thus become like God and His saints; “What is the participation of righteousness in lawlessness; or some communication between light and darkness” (2 Cor. 6:14). The saints spent their entire lives preparing and cleansing themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit; they especially need to learn humility, for the beginning of sin is pride. Dennitsa fell with pride. The wicked will not see Your glory, O Christ, that is, unbelievers, wrong believers, Jews, Mohammedans, Buddhists, pagans. Will we see? It depends on our life, faith, piety. If we have the Spirit of Christ, if we are a new creature in Christ, then we will undoubtedly see the glory of Christ and enjoy it forever. He who is wise and understands this will force himself to achieve the kingdom of God. The essence of the human soul, albeit fallen, is amazing! For, what is it like in the saints who diligently served the Lord in this temporary life! How long is she devoted to God with love, with selflessness, prayer, abstinence, and unceasing vision towards God? How pure, hard, bright, fragrant. And the very bodies of saints emit fragrances. And what an end! How peaceful, glorious, bright, holy! You, a Christian, must be master and lord in your heart, must rule over all passions and kill them, and give dominance to grace and every good, especially love for your neighbor, in order to love God most of all, for love for God is tested by love for your neighbor: he who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see? And this commandment comes from Him, that he who loves God must also love his brother: “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15). Remember the only wealth of Elijah the prophet - the mantle that was lowered on Elisha during the ascension of the prophet. Oh, how he, Elijah, loved God, how alien he was to all worldly passions! He was all in God even before he was taken to heaven, he lived with his heart in heaven, with God: “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand” (1 Kings 18:15), he said! When you pray before the image of the Lord or the Mother of God or the saints, ask yourself: do you look at the holy icons sincerely and with love, do you look with faith? Do you pray with all your heart, with all your thoughts and with all your hope? Is your heart sleeping? Is your thought asleep? Is it not the slumber of the heart that your mouth speaks? Our salvation is in the Church, as in Noah’s ark, and nowhere else. “If the Church disobeys, you will be like a pagan and a publican” (Matthew 18:17). The Church is the body of Christ, and we are “the members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones” (Eph. 5:30). The Holy Spirit is the helmsman of the verbal ship of the Church. Only in the Church, as in Noah’s Ark, can one be saved. The pious Cornelius the centurion was a pagan who always prayed and gave alms; He was instructed by an angel to call the Apostle Peter, and from him to hear the word of salvation and to receive baptism with the whole house. Significant. “Unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5): Mohammedans will not enter, Jews, idolaters, heretics will not enter, sectarians will not enter, fornicators, adulterers, covetous people and other wicked people will not enter and will not inherit the kingdom of God. Quickly lay hold of eternal life and prepare for it. Don't be late. Only by true faith in Christ and in His Church will we be saved, and by deeds of love. In the life-giving faces of the Savior, the Mother of God, the Forerunner and the saints, the most holy truth, goodness, humility, and mercy are depicted. With what love we must look at holy icons, at the image of the Holy Cross, at the Gospel and other shrines that remind us of the great deeds and words of God and the holy saints. So look, and don’t lower your face to the ground, don’t be alienated with your heart and eyes, like the Lutherans and Pashkovites or the Jews. Appropriate yourself to the heavenly Church. Do you love monuments to famous people, do you love looking at their portraits, photographs, why don’t you like looking at the faces of saints? You are not consistent and very, very stupid, false and wild. Only in the Orthodox Church of God are relics incorruptible, but outside the Church - not, that is, neither among Catholics, nor among Lutherans, much less among Jews and Mohammedans. Hold on to the Orthodox Church with a sincere heart! Malignant and vain blindness covers the heartfelt eyes of Christians, and not Christians especially. What kind of blindness? The one that people forget from laziness, inconstancy and addiction to material goods: beauty and health, earthly wealth, food and drink that delight the larynx, earthly rewards and distinctions, shows and various games, works of art. People think little or not at all about eternal life and about the heavenly incorruptible inhabitants prepared for those who love God from the creation or before the creation of the world. Strive for this last with all your soul, only a few out of many will enter eternal life, “for many are the titles, but few are the chosen” (Matthew 20:16). Be gone, heart blindness! Give us, Lord, clear eyes of heart to see the eternal blessings You have prepared for us. Christian logic seems not difficult and can easily be understood and studied... in order to love, study and assimilate it with all your heart, and yet almost everyone has forgotten it, this Christian logic - both simple and learned (alleged scientists) and do not delve into it and do not study it with diligence, like other earthly and tedious sciences, arts and craftsmanship; and heavenly logic and wisdom are justified by her children like Seraphim of Sarov, Theodosius of Chernigov and other saints. Which of the laity today is looking for this pearl of great price, that treasure priceless, but of little value? Do not forget, Christian, that by baptism, confirmation and inclusion in the Church you are a citizen of heaven and the heavenly fatherland, where our Redeemer Christ God, the Mother of God and all the saints - Old Testament and New Testament - entered as the Forerunner. “You are strangers and strangers, but fellow saints and dreamers of God” (Eph. 2:19). How stupid, senseless our flesh is in its lusts: how destructive it is if we do not curb it and crucify it with its passions and lusts! It is beautifully said in the troparion to the saints: “despise the flesh, for it passes away, but be diligent about the souls, things that are immortal.” Remember the expressions of the Apostle about the sins of the pagans and Jews: “For their wives changed their natural likeness into a supernatural one. Likewise, men, having abandoned the natural likeness of the female sex, inflamed themselves with their plowing on each other, men inflict cold on men, and retribution is appropriate for their deceit, receiving within themselves” (Rom. 1:26,27). How people, because of pleasing the flesh, have perverted every order of God, the order of creation! In the end, we will all have to leave this short life and move into eternity and appear to the holy and righteous Judge and Creator of all, God, and give an account of our entire lives! How and with what will we show up? What judgment and sentence will we hear from Him for all eternity? This is what we should think about more often, what we should care about. Oh, think all about this future destiny and prepare your good deeds, your spiritual fruits; Let no one appear as a fruitless tree. A vineyard planted by the Lord. The Lord expected sweet grapes from him, but he, the grape, turned into thorns. The crown of thorns on the Head of the Savior is a sign of the sinful thorns with which humanity is filled. Our life is a constant test through everyday circumstances and clashes with people - how much we bow our soul and heart to faith, hope, and love for God, our Creator, and in love for our neighbor; and how prone we are to sin and various worldly carnal passions or to obedience to the devil, who acts through carnal passions and the delights of the world. Blessed is the one who deeply understands this task of his and walks firmly towards God, overcoming temptations from the flesh and the world, fighting the world and the ruler of the world, who constantly deceives us with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. The holy saints of God serve as examples for us in our lives. Ethereal enemies use every effort to devalue for us in our thoughts and hearts the sayings of the Word of God and the words of church prayers and to give value to worldly vain books and sheets with all sorts of worldly sins and temptations (songs, dramatic works, novels, etc.). Some noticed how enemies prevented them from pronouncing the words of Holy Scripture and the words of familiar prayers - and how much grief and despair they caused, darkening, confusing and killing their hearts (paralyzing); how much struggle they needed, the most intense, in order to break their enemies and calmly and sincerely read the Word of God or prayer... Others become so accustomed to sins and have such a corrupted conscience that they do not consider sin to be a sin, but an ordinary matter and as if permitted, or a matter of skill and dexterity and daring to deceive and seduce others and take advantage of their oversight and ignorance to their advantage. We must keep our conscience healthy, pure, unsullied, sensitive, tender, so that it immediately repels from itself the touch of any sin, no matter how deadly poison, for the rent of sin is death. So in the present evil time of various freedoms, incorrectly given, misunderstood, others do not consider murder to be a sin, adultery, or robbery... Serve people impartially and willingly, rich or poor, healthy and sick, handsome and ugly, noble and simple, believing and remembering that they are all members of Christ and your souls, and that for impartial and diligent service you will receive a reward from the Hero of Christ. “And whoever gives one of these little ones a cup of cold water to drink, except in the name of the disciple, Amen, I say to you, he will not lose his reward” (Matthew 10:42), He says. When serving others, sometimes there is partiality or laziness, reluctance or anger and irritation, or a desire for reward. Know: your reward is Christ. I am united and united with the heavenly and earthly Church: with the Mother of God, with the orders of angels, with the holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles, saints, martyrs, saints, righteous, with all the saints by the grace of God. How should I think, feel, want, speak and act? And here’s how: “What is true, what is honest, what is righteous, what is most pure, what is most loving, what is worthy of praise, if there is any virtue, and if there is any praise, think about this. Having learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Phil. 4:8-9). “The saints will be praised in glory, and will rejoice on their beds” (Ps. 149:5). Let us remember the life of St. Xenia; her leaving her parents at home, neglecting wealth and nobility and her betrothed; her fiery love for Christ: fasting, prayer, exhaustion of the flesh, concern for the salvation of the souls of virgins. Why is there such a desire for God in the souls of the faithful and pious? Because like strives for like; the soul, created in the image and likeness of God, strives for the like, the image - for the Prototype, light - for Light, life - for Life, good power - for good Power, mind - for the Source of wisdom. And people who are unfaithful and foolish, sinful and evil strive for what they are similar to, that is, the evil and all-evil devil: evil - to evil, darkness - to darkness, uncleanness - to uncleanness, evil power - to evil power. People slumber like holy fools: unbelievers or believers without good deeds, without mercy towards their neighbors. Fools who believed in faith did not have good deeds, and therefore they were condemned. Oh, how many Christians will be condemned! What will I repay to You, Lord, for You have given me the grace to be born and raised in the Orthodox faith and Church and in the dear, invaluable Fatherland - Russia, in which the Orthodox Church has been planted since ancient times! I thank and glorify You as best I can by Your grace. With what attention, with what reverence, with what love, peace and gratitude we must always pronounce the Name of God and the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father...” and all other prayers. The name of God is great, holy and terrible, and just naming Him is blessed for the believer. Lord, if I am Your priest and in Your Name for so many years I have trumpeted my voice against the greatest heretic Tolstoy - this high wall of Jericho - then let this wall of pride fall, to the surprise of all who believe and honor You, the only Lord of glory, desecrated by this heretic of heretics. “Rise up, judge of the earth, give reward to the proud. How long will sinners, O Lord, how long will sinners be praised” (Ps. 93:2-3). How long will blasphemy and wickedness prevail? The whole earth was filled with blasphemy. Lord, You are the true Lord of creation! What are the Finns, Poles, Germans - these who distorted Your Gospel, who have fallen away from Your Church - plotting against Russia and against Your holy Orthodox Church? Lord, what are they up to? They want to completely devour us and destroy Your Church, Your churches, Your worship, Your statutes, the decrees of the holy apostles and holy fathers, ecumenical and local councils. What have we come to? God! Do we grieve you, who is immeasurably good and constantly graces us in every possible way, with all kinds of sins and all kinds of passions? Correct us and show us worthy of Yourself, worthy of our Christian calling and election! Do parish and city priests (and deacons) worthily receive communion at every liturgy? No - many are unworthy. God sees what they think and do. God! You are the righteous Judge of all! Do not judge us, unworthy, who often partake of Your Holy Body. Behold, we are all unworthy of Your terrible and heavenly life-giving Mysteries. May your immeasurable mercy cover our sins! When we pray for our neighbors, the Lord looks at our hearts: do we sincerely desire salvation and all good for our neighbors as for ourselves; secondly, whether we sincerely abhor sin and love repentance and virtue; thirdly, whether we sincerely love the Lord and are heartily devoted to Him; fourthly, are we not angry with our neighbor, are we not at enmity? “If you then bring your gift to the altar, you will remember that one, as if your brother has something for you: lay the skeleton of that gift before the altar, and going first, humble yourself with your brother, and then come and bring your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24). We should not have a hostile attitude towards anyone, but should have an attitude of condescension, patience, all-forgiving, full of love, so that God will forgive us too. The words of our Savior Jesus Christ are true: “Whatever is not with Me is on Me” (Whoever is not with Me is against Me) (Matthew 12:30). Catholics, Lutherans and Reformed people have fallen away from the Church of Christ - they are not of one mind with us, they are at enmity against us, they strongly persecute us to death, oppress us in every possible way for our faith, ridicule it and us, and cause us all sorts of troubles, especially in the main places of their settlement. They clearly go against Christ and His Church, do not venerate holy icons, holy relics, do not respect fasts, and pervert the tenets of the saving faith. They are not with us, but against us and against Christ. Turn them, Lord, to Thy true Church and save them! Insatiably, joyfully and unceasingly glorify the Lord the All-Creator, the heavenly angels, countless in multitude, and holy men also, and we, earthly and earthly, stout, are so lazy in prayer, glorification and thanksgiving! Why? Because they are addicted to the earth, to the voluptuous and lazy, to earthly acquisitions, to various sensual pleasures. In order to worthily glorify and love the Creator, it is necessary to eradicate sinful pride, selfishness, egoism: “If anyone wants to walk after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). All saints will be witnesses of the saving faith of Christ against all our learned secular ignoramuses who boast of their false education, against all non-Orthodox Christians, especially those who call themselves only Orthodox Christians, but in fact have long betrayed their faith. That is why martyrs are called martyr in Greek - witness. Remember, Christian, how many witnesses there will be against you at the judgment of Christ. The man is a Christian. Remember how much caring and wonderful Providence the Lord showed about your salvation, predetermining to save you before the ages were created, announcing His coming to earth through the prophets and various righteous men of the Old Testament. How He came to earth and fulfilled all His care for you, founding the Church with shepherding and sacraments, giving it the saving word of grace upon grace, all the saving means for life and piety! Remember the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ for you, the atoning death on the cross, the resurrection and ascension into heaven and the promise to come to earth a second time with glory for the judgment of the living and the dead. Tell me what you yourself are doing for your salvation, for “The Kingdom of Heaven is in need, and the needy women delight it” (Matthew 11:12). Be ashamed of yourself, repent, mourn your unbelief, negligence, inertia, laziness, vanity, madness and other passions, and quickly get to work on the work of your salvation. Read the Word of God, read how holy men labored. Do you value, O priest, who performs sacred rites and celebrates the Liturgy every day, the fruits of communion of the holy life-giving and terrible and heavenly Mysteries! Do you feel the cleansing of sins, renewal, rebirth, sanctification, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, “a good yoke and a light burden,” freedom of spirit, joy in the Holy Spirit? Blessed are you if you feel all this and thank God... Warm up the gift of God in yourself, do not be indifferent, insensitive, ungrateful. For the feeling of gratitude, you will be rewarded with greater grace: correct yourself, strive in everything for the perfection of life and virtue, so that you will be worthy to hear the voice from the Lord: “Good, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful for a little, I will set you over many: enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matthew 25:21). Amen. Our old man has a habit: when reading the Word of God or liturgical books, or writing the patristic and generally holy books, sometimes secretly resist the predicate, that is, what is said and written. This is the secret voice of the enemy Satan, who was the first to learn and teach fallen spirits and people to resist God, His holy truth and righteousness. So I noticed and notice that he resists me, my heart and mind, secretly, when reading prayers, canons, stichera, the Creed. And I must fight and overthrow his plans. Oh, accursed one, away from me - the enemy of truth and the righteousness of God! You lead those who listen to you to lies, damnation and death, just like Adam and Eve. Two are intended for chosen people: temporary, earthly - and eternal, heavenly. This life has been given to us independently of us... We must firmly and constantly believe in the future resurrection of the dead and in the future endless life, we must... stock up on the oil of good deeds or alms, for the merciful will receive mercy... “Did you not sow good seed in your village, from where would you get tares” (Matthew 13:27): heresies, schisms, the admission of new ones dogmas, all sorts of vices, the desire to dominate, primacy in the Catholic Church, distortion of worship, sacraments, rituals (unleavened bread)? The Lord answers: “the enemy man has done this” (Matthew 13:28), human pride and malice, but the Lord allows everything to grow to the end, and in the next century he will evaluate everyone according to his deeds. What brings us closer to God, or what makes us peculiar, dear to God, his children? The living image of God is embedded or innate in our soul, the union of faith into which we entered with God at baptism, having been born by water and the Spirit and assimilated to God; obligations on both sides: on the part of the Lord - to have mercy on us and to educate us spiritually for the kingdom of heaven, for eternal life in God, and on our side - the desire and effort to love God, who loved us to the extreme, to please Him by fulfilling His commandments and to live holy, avoiding sins and bringing Him repentance. This is what makes us close to God, His close children. And sin continually intensifies to alienate us from God, to remove us, to cool us towards Him, to make us wild, like animals. “An ox knows his owner, and a donkey his master’s manger; but... My people do not understand” (Isa. 1:3). I am constantly amazed by God's all-good, all-wise structure for the salvation of human souls, created in the image and likeness of the all-good, all-wise, eternal God. From the very beginning of the fall of the first people into sin, curse and death - from the first removal of them from Him!.. How much concern is there for salvation, what promise is there for the seed of the Woman, who has to erase the head of the serpent? How much care is there for the chosen seed, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, all the patriarchs... and the people? How many wonderful industries, how many miracles during the exodus from Egypt, how many miracles in the desert, under the judges, under the kings of the chosen people? How many fatherly punishments from the Lord God to the stubborn, criminal people... Christ raised Lazarus from the dead with a word, which means that He is the Creator of Lazarus, the Creator of the human race. He raised up the widow’s son with a word, which means that with the same word He created the world from nothingness. He forbade the winds and waters with a word, which means that He created them with His word, to which everything obeys. He walked on the waves of the sea as if on dry land, which means He is the Creator of seas, lakes, rivers and all kinds of sources. He transforms fire into dew, water into wine, rivers into blood, and the dust of the earth into midges. He brought frogs out of the sea to punish the Egyptians, which means that He is the Creator of the elements... With the same word from Him in the last time, the earth will turn into a blazing fiery bonfire, and the burned elements will be ruined. This means that by the same word of the Lord the dead will all be resurrected. Do atheists understand this wonderful creativity and providence of the Lord for the world? The Lord God is the beginningless eternal Being of infinite holiness, truth, goodness and mercy, unimaginable immeasurable lightness, for there is an ever-present Light, from Whom are all the second countless lights - angelic cathedrals - from Whom is the light of the sun, moon and stars, from Whom are thunders and lightnings and every blade of grass in the world. God is a Being of infinite, most solid order, unspeakable beauty, eternal peace, unshakable. As the Holy One and the One who created us in the image of His holiness, He demands from us holiness and complete turning away from all sin, which is darkness, confusion, ugliness, lawlessness and withdrawal from life and a fall into damnation and death. Judge for yourselves, sinners, fallen, darkened, mortals: what should you do urgently? Continuously repent, pray, correct yourself, do good deeds and become like God. The Christian faith is the restoration by God, by His immeasurable goodness, of the image of God in man, fallen, defiled, corrupted - the reconciliation of the Creator with the ungrateful, disobedient, proud creature, permission from the righteous curse and the bestowal of blessing, the opening of the heaven that is reserved for us: “from now on you will see the heavens open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son Human” (John 1:51), - and victory over death and the abolition of it, as well as the devil, its culprit, entry into paradise and the granting of eternal life. How many, how many countless blessings have been given by God in the Christian faith - to a believer who is obedient to the Gospel and commandments of Christ! What is the matter, Christians? Why are you sleeping? Rise up, stay awake, pray, repent, reform, do good deeds and ascend to heaven! Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? And he said to his servants: tie his hands and feet, throw him into the pitch darkness, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. Christ our God likened Himself to the holy, beautiful, luminous, eternal Bridegroom, who deigned to be betrothed with an eternal, incorruptible, vital betrothal in the future non-finite life and in this here, earthly one, offering himself to the faithful soul. To become engaged to faithful souls, but who have desecrated the robe of their souls with countless sins, who have distorted the image of God and who have distanced themselves from God, who have become strangers to him because of their sins. The Lord gave them beautiful, incorruptible spiritual clothing in the mystery of baptism and sealing with the Holy Spirit through anointing with holy myrrh. But man again desecrated the robe of baptism and again withdrew from God and dressed himself in the stinking rags of passions, breaking and dishonoring his betrothal to God. The Lord, in His mercy, again favored him with a wedding robe in sincere repentance and in the communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, and the person again receives an incorruptible robe and is united in the closest way with the heavenly Bridegroom, so as to be careful in every possible way, again not to stain the wedding robe and live in holiness. Who are these souls betrothed to Christ, the heavenly Bridegroom - where are they? These souls are you, brothers and sisters. I ask you: is your wedding garment clean and adorned? Have you adorned your souls with good deeds? What will you bring to the wedding supper, to the kingdom of heaven? Are you constantly preparing for where the beautiful Bridegroom awaits us?.. At Your feet, Lord, we lie in tears of repentance with all those who wept: the saints, prophets, apostles, holy martyrs and all the righteous - and we ask You for mercy through their prayers, and for the salvation of souls and the kingdom of heaven, although we are unworthy of it because of our sins. I bring to Your intercession Your Most Pure Mother, the councils of angels and all rational creation: have mercy and save us sinners according to Your grace and mercy. To her. Amen. You might be interested in: